Farmer Suicides and Unified Agricultural Policy - Mr. Nobody's perspective - I

We are hearing the kisan's plight from every nook and corner of Bharat. As a bhartiya it is our moral obligation to look into the matter. The present Kendra sarkar has been following the same policy as its predecessor. Our honorable Vitt Mantri has already lashed out at state run banks that NPA are at unacceptable level. So at the end of the day what went wrong? As far as agriculture is concerned it is employing a whopping 49% of the population. At this juncture of time where the modern technology has been implemented in the sector, still our kisan is unable to enjoy its share of pie. British raj and princely states used the zamindar system for tax collection. At that time the land used to be given to the kisan on a leased basis and his name used to come in the land record as tenant ( patta) . Kisan was not the owner of the land, instead he had to give the percentage of the produce as tax to the zamindar and zamindar used to pay the tax to the local government body. After the independence, the law of tenancy was passed which made kisan the owner of the land and he started paying the land revenue to the government instead of zamindar. When the constitution of tax is still the same, and moreover kisan is now the owner of the land, then why the condition of kisan is deteriorating day by day?

We at Ethmos have tried to analyze the situation and here are few of the problems that are at the root cause of this situation.

Fragmentation of land

The lands are passed on from generation to generation from father to son. The ancestral lands are usually divided among the sons of the father. The overall land holding has been shrinking. Let's take an example Mr. A has 10 acres of land. He has four sons and so ultimately every son will get a share of 2.5 acres. So from generation to generation the landholding is shrinking which makes agriculture quite a difficult proposition.

Crop pattern and fertility of land

It has been observed that in order to earn some extra money farmers have abandoned the mixed cropping pattern. For the layman readers, mixed cropping is very important to retain the fertility of the land.  Many farmers are only going for cash crops, and many of them are repeating it even after completion of the cropping cycles. This is directly affecting the fertility of land which will lead to low yield. It is just like going on milking the same cow multiple times a day without letting her rest or giving her proper feed.  Let's take an example of Mr A who is a sugarcane farmer.  After completion of three crop seasons, he is not going for any mixed crop such as maize, wheat, tamarind etc. He is sowing sugarcane again after completion of three crop seasons to earn money. He is not thinking about the fertility of the land. He is actually on the losing front in a long term scenario since the loss of fertility of the land will lead to lesser produce and more overhead costs in the form of fertilizers and higher water requirement.

The Middle-men problem

This is another big problem in the bag of the poor kisan.  The middlemen are everywhere in the agricultural sector – from taking loans from banks or moneylenders to selling their produce in the mandis or the  APMCs as we fashionably call it.  The moneylenders actually create inflationary pressure on the already crushed kisan in the form of brokerage or commission.  And in order to earn more brokerage/commission, what these vermins do is that they increase the selling prices of commodities and also unnecessarily make the poor kisan take a higher loan which they will seldom be able to repay in their next seven generations.  We at Ethmos believe that a Middlemen Control Act has to be enacted across the country for all sectors in order to remove this scourge from the economy entirely.

Kisan's household

The expenses of the farmer’s household are monthly, whereas the income is yearly. This time gap is actually a big issue for the small and marginal farmers (farmers having lands less than 5 acres) . Usually the small and marginal farmers go for dairy business to suffice their monthly needs. Nowadays due to internet and telecom kranti the mobile phones and TVs are available in the rural household.  Apart from these expenses, the kisan has to pay the school fees of the kids , medical expenses and other household expenses. As we have discussed the land holdings are shrinking and hence the incomes as the income is directly proportional to land holding. Farmers usually borrow money from money lenders to meet their monthly expenses and repay the same from yearly agricultural income. But here is the catch - the farmer borrows for monthly expenses and every month apart from the usual expenses, one more humongous expense is added which is called the interest expense - which can range from 2% to 4% monthly interest of the total borrowed some.  For example, if he borrows say Rs. 1 lac from the money lender, he will have to pay Rs. 2,000/- monthly as interest to the moneylender and this interest is compounded by the end of the year leading to nearly 30% to 40% rise in the interest expenses.  This whole thing forms a vicious circle and hence to gain this extra income, cash crop will be planted by farmer even after completion of crop cycle which will lead to lower fertility of land and higher water requirement.

 Kisan is unable to come out of this vicious circle which ultimately results in the extreme step of suicide.  Kisan is unable to come out of this debt trap as the income is yearly and expenses are monthly. The fact is that the yield of the crop is declining every year and the kisan is unable to return the money that he has taken from the money lender. The cash crop is actually a risky affair as it requires more water, more care and at the end of the day  it is hampering the fertility of the land. If every farmer will go for cash crop then what will happen to the production of crops required as staple diet such as wheat, maize, cereals, pulses, etc. The over reliance of the kisan on cash crop  for extra income will create the food scarcity problem in near future.  It’s a high time now that the government should come up with a uniform plan to save the agricultural sector. The loan waiver and restructuring of the loan is not a solution as it creates more burden on the state run banks.

The question is - can we come up with a unified agricultural policy ( UAP)? In the next article, we will discuss about UAP in detail.